Farmers

Producers

This is where the food is grown, cultivated or developed. Each producer is restricted by local and international guidelines, laws and legislation in regards to how food should appear and the quality standards that the product has to live up to. This can include shape, colour and/or size. In the EU for instance, the following fresh products face rigid market standards that mean producers can only sell the ones that meet these requirements

Warehousing

Handling & Storage

Once the product has been harvested, it’s time for it to be washed and prepared. The product might not be ready to eat, depending on what it is. Bananas are still green when harvested because they ripen in strictly controlled environments through the rest of their journey to the supermarket.

Cold Room

Processing & Packaging

There are many requirements which food products have to meet and sometimes these standards are in place to make packaging easier. Some of them are set by the EU parliament and local governments, but the retailers also have high demands. This is simply because the supermarkets want to sell the very best looking produce and even though a crooked cucumber tastes just as good as a straight one, retailers think that the consumer won’t buy them. At this stage, you also have the meat processing plants. This is where the animals are sent from farmers to meat processing plants. Here the animals get slaughtered, butchered and in some cases processed and made into bacon, salami and such.

WHolesellers & retailers

Distribution & Retail

The longest journeys usually happen at this stage, when the food travels from its packaging plant to its retail destination, mostly supermarkets. Most food is transported by ship, but some products are transported by air, and that is the most carbon-heavy way of doing it.

The distance that a food item is transported, from producer to consumer, is called a food mile. We use this to measure the environmental footprint of food production, which is called the “foodprint”.

Consumers

Consumption

The last and final stage of the food supply chain is consumption. This is where food is, hopefully, eaten.